When in development the C17s were seriously late, and incredibly over-budget.
Agreed Moosey, the C17 was a dog when it started and still has some serious design issues - thrust reverse is a mare and the undercarriage is fragile, both are serious support issues. I am a fan of both programmes, I was just saying that the smart thing to do would have been to invest in a known product at an off-the-shelf price, rather than allow politics to decide the solution as it is politics that has caused most of issues (including ecu selection).
The C17 was not late into RAF service is my point - if we want to subsidize the euro nations playing at building aircraft, we should accept the inevitable delay and cost over-runs, it would just be nice if someone factored them in at the start - they always happen! Military will suffer unless someone now does an interim panic buy to fill the gap.
A400M will work one day, but those that say the delays were unpredictable are clearly mad and a cause of some of the barking procurement decisions that have been made. It was never going to arrive on time - does not make it a bad aircraft, just means that we will need something to fill the gap.